My son suffers from anxiety

[CazaB]

I wondered if anyone had any tips for me, my son comes across as confident when he’s out but the last couple of years he’s started to get nervous if he’s somewhere where there’s a few people. He even rushes me past secondary school kids. The last few years he’s started getting little ticks too. He does it all the time, he bangs his belly. He started secondary this year. I talk to him all the time, I’m calm, he gets plenty of attention. I don’t know how I can help him more. Tried the doctors not much help. Paid for a CBT therapist but it’s all on zoom. Help! Any ideas what I can do to help him?

Hi CazaB,

We're no experts in this field but we wanted to say hi and give this a bump for you.

It might be worth posting in Parenting too - we hope you'll find some useful support and advice from other posters.

My dd15 suffers from social anxiety. It started over a year ago due to bullying. Gp was totally useless. Dd really, really struggled. Managed to get her cbt through our local authority during the first lockdown, this was over the phone and the sessions seemed to work for her at the time, however, she struggled again when she went back to school in September as she was back in the 'real world' so to speak and around lots of people again.
I managed to get her back in to counselling with the same person and this time it's through zoom. For my dd it took a good few weeks and then we could see a difference in how she handles the anxiety. She still gets anxious, but seems to be able to (mainly) deal with it in a better way. How long has your ds been having the cbt for? I would say stick with the cbt for now. Do you get to have a catch up with his counsellor? You could ask them how you think he's doing with it. My dd absolutely hated her first session, but she did realise that she needed to do it.

Have you tried contacting Young Minds op?

youngminds.org.uk/find-help/for-parents/parents-guide-to-support-a-z/parents-guide-to-support-anxiety/

Maybe try these too op. We were given this info by dds school. Online support groups for both you and your ds.

www.kooth.com

www.qwell.io